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A new year and new beginnings at Walden Behavioral Health in Southern Maryland, with the arrival of a new Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Sam Bauman, Ph.D.

Dr. Bauman has recently served as Clinical Director at the Calvert Health Department; as the Clinical Director at Grafton Integrated Health Network and as the Director of ACT Services at Community Connections, DC. Dr. Bauman has over thirty years’ experience in executive management of juvenile justice, substance use disorder treatment, behavioral health and human service agencies. He has developed and implemented programs for youth & family services, school-based services, primary prevention family strengthening services, rehabilitation services, domestic violence treatment, homeless case management, crisis intervention, jail-based substance use disorder treatment, and dual diagnosis services. Dr. Bauman has extensive experience as a trainer and has designed and conducted workshops on a variety of behavioral health topics.

More than 90 percent of people who use heroin also use at least one other drug

45 percent of people who use heroin are also addicted to prescription opioid painkillers.

Prescription opioid drug overdoses increased threefold in three years.

To combat this crisis, behavioral health organizations are increasingly utilizing evidence-based practices such as medication assisted treatment (MAT), Walden is no different. Medications such as buprenorphine and methadone consistently prove effective in treating opioid use disorder. In recent years, extended-release naltrexone has also been approved for the treatment of opioid dependence and shown evidence of effectiveness.

“When you have been hit you think, ‘This is cold-blooded, controlling, calculating stuff’. You think, ‘How can I be in this situation?’ But you want to make it work. You love this person and you think it must be your fault; and he tells you it is. He’s attractive and successful; people think he’s wonderful; he’s earning lots of money. You think, ‘It must be me. How come I do this to him?’

When I finally told him to leave he was furious. I’d never seen him so angry. He pushed me back on to the sofa and hit me again and again and again. Then he grabbed me by the hair; it was long in those days; and dragged me upstairs to our bedroom. He disappeared and when he came back he had a knife. I’ve never been more scared than I was at that moment.”